Next Time

By Reverend Billy Talen · March 12, 2016

12

March 2016

NEXT TIME WE'LL PROBABLY HAVE TO KILL HIM. This is the statement of the Trump supporter in the picture below, with the red shirt and cowboy hat, who attacked the protester moments later. Yes, there it is. Violence is the dream. He dreams that his victim sags to his knees, the fist crushing the face, the horror of witnesses, the contorted faces, the lives changed forever.

Violence as a dream. Violence as a validation. Violence as the perfect illusion. “I have a feeling that is so strong that society does not provide me a way to express myself, so I must go beyond what is permitted. I kill you.”

I can stand next to Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Donald Trump. I am a man who said no. I am a man who said no.

WE SHOULD HAVE SAVED HIM. So how would the opposite dream work? The dream of peace?

The protester is shouting. “Stop the hate!” The people around him listen to his demand. They try to understand. Oh, he thinks that we are haters. Then someone asks, “Are we?” (Seems unrealistic. But social change historically takes place in the distance from the shout to learning.)

The extreme accusation at close range is illegal everywhere in the United States. In New York, a cop can take a citizen to jail for shouting too loudly. A good shout needs the frame of illegality or the volume is pointless. A protest sign must be a simple demand that argues with its surroundings and the people who are nearby. Many shouts in 2016 have a good reason and corporate media won't cover the shouts except to disapprove, to recite the police charges.

The act of peace is no longer allowed, and in fact, is rendered unbelievable. The average age of the peace advocacy groups that still exist is 75 or 80.

Consumerism and Militarism do not endorse acts of kindness. Fear drives the economy. Each product we buy elevates us over the rabble. We escape into convenience, into speed, into style, into America, into watching violence with approval. We don’t save the killer, we pay him.

THANK GOD FOR BLACK LIVES MATTER. I am grateful for the immigrants, for the earth-lovers who stop the pipelines. Donald Trump will not leave the podium and go back to his hotel because of politicians who imitate him. He will stop shouting when he loses his voice, because his entire audience is shouting over him, to save him. At some point even he will stop and ask, “What are they saying?”